CHAPTER XXXII 
THE LORD OF THE RIVER 
Next to the lion, comes the crocodile as a 
perpetual menace to native life. The average 
black man, too, is so careless and so imbued with 
fatalistic ideas, that thousands of them are annually 
killed by these monsters of river and pool, when the 
exercise of a little caution would obviate the 
majority of such fatalities. 
When I was living in the vicinity of the Shire 
River, in Nyassaland, crocodiles were continually 
catching and devouring natives—usually women— 
who, heedless of danger, came down to the banks 
to draw water or bathe in the shallow reaches ; while 
at Fort Johnston, on the Upper Shire, an incredible 
number of natives fell victims to these insatiable 
reptiles. 
At Mpimbi, also on the Shire River, crocodiles 
actually made a practice of upsetting native canoes, 
in order to secure the occupants, and it became a 
favourite pastime of Europeans resident at that 
